


a thing shadowed and sharp

by TLvop



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (2012)
Genre: BAMF Natasha Romanov, Canon Era, Character Study, Friendship/Love, Gen, Loyalty, Revenge, violent tone/mood
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-03-24
Updated: 2013-03-24
Packaged: 2017-12-06 08:00:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 272
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/733290
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TLvop/pseuds/TLvop
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Phil Coulson does not think like Natasha Romanoff, but he's close enough to make a very educated guess.</p><p>Natasha Romanoff is no one's hero.</p><p>(A character study, set during Avengers)</p>
            </blockquote>





	a thing shadowed and sharp

**Author's Note:**

> I haven't written anything for awhile, then I saw a very old prompt for dangerous!Natasha and decided to write this up quickly.
> 
> Eevi Koskinen belongs to ashen_key and is a friend of Natasha's; everyone else belongs to Marvel.

The only person that really understands Natasha Romanoff, other than Fury (who isn't sharing his intel), is Phil Coulson.

Not Eevi Koskinen.

Not Jasper Sitwell.

 _Definitely_ not Clint Barton.

The latter three could tell you she loves Clint, could suppose that her reaction to his capture or death would be messy and potentially devastating for the instigator of that scenario. But they are, at heart, kind people. Not gentle, not even particularly _nice_ ; kind. So the idea that Natasha Romanoff is ruthlessly pragmatic edging into cruel is only a fact, to them. An "oh, well, of course," of awareness lacking any true comprehension. They cannot foresee her reactions, because they may as well be from another species given how far apart their minds work from hers.

Phil Coulson does not think like Natasha Romanoff, but Phil Coulson once shot a defenseless man twice in the chest for sharing information that got an agent of his captured (recovered safe, but captured first). He then sat down in a coffee shop the next country over and filled out the four applicable forms in triplicate, checking the box for _clear and present physical threat_ , as Coulson dislikes extra paperwork as much as anyone else.

That is to say: Phil Coulson does not think like Natasha Romanoff, but he's close enough to make a very educated guess.

Phil Coulson believes in heroes to save the world. Natasha Romanoff is no one's hero.

But from the moment he found Loki had appropriated Barton, he knew – world damned in the process or not – that there was no scenario that did not end with Loki's destruction.

Romanoff _is_ conviction.


End file.
